


Butterfly Effect

by Tamira189



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Backstory, El Matador Del Mar, Gen, Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Multichapter, Pirates, Salazar has a daughter, Spain, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-02-07 16:03:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12844656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamira189/pseuds/Tamira189
Summary: She was his pride and joy. His beloved Alicia.After pirates had attacked his ship half a year ago and killed his wife Mary, Armando Salazar seeks nothing more than to erase every single pirate on the seaven seas from history. For the safety of the people and his daughter.But as time passed, Alicia grew up a child of the sea and even became a pirate herself, not knowing of her father´s doings...





	1. For my Daughter I shall Sail

**Author's Note:**

> With this fanfiction I´m trying to explore some of Salazar´s backstory and what could have possibly happened in his past that made him hate pirates that much. What I found very interesting as well was the thought of him having a daughter who´d become a pirate herself one day. 
> 
> Well, let´s see how this will develop! :)  
> Thanks for reading and reviewing. <3
> 
> (Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean or the characters from the franchise. Alicia is merely an additional character I invented for fanfiction purposes.)

She was his pride and joy.  
Armando Salazar held the child in his arms with a gentle smile like the greatest treasure of mankind he had to protect from the dangers of the ocean. He was dressed in his usual black and white uniform with his black hair neatly tied back. After all he was the captain of a ship and acted in the name of the royal crown. The authority he radiated with his appearance granted him great respect and appreciation. And even a little fear. 

Though the only people who really had to fear Captain Salazar were pirates. At the very thought his smile vanished and he had to turn his head to hide the disgust in his face from his daughter. From the spot on the harbour he stood he looked at the horizon so far away from them. 

Pirates. Mary…

It was this scum of the sea who took everything from him. About half a year ago pirates had attacked his ship on the high sea and took his Mary hostage. She didn´t survive.  
Thank god he had at least been able to save his daughter. In remembrance of his lost love he soon christened his ship and from this day on it would have been bearing the name “The Silent Mary”. Even though he had suffered an immense loss in his life, he could at least spend time with her on the sea.

Hunting for pirates. 

In Spanish common parlance he was already known as El Matador del Mar. The slaughterer of the sea. 

Not without good reason Salazar was well-known and feared by seamen, who tried their best to evade him. But not everyone could escape his wrath. No one. Not a single one of them. One day he would have cut the very last of their unworthy throats and finally have purged the sea from their existence. The ocean would be safe again. Especially for his beloved daughter. 

Every. Single. Pirate. There would be no mercy. 

For he would never ever again let them take him everything he lives and breathes for. Though on the other hand, however, he would never want his daughter to know of his doings. She should never learn that her father was known as the pirate hunter.  
How should he explain it to her anyways? How should one explain a child that his father kills men on the high sea? No…not men. Pirates.

“Capitan!”  
The familiar voice brought him back to reality. With a stern expression Salazar awaited the person who addressed him.  
His lieutenant, Lesaro, hurried up to his captain and took a short breath of exhaustion before declaring his message. 

“Capitan, the ship is ready for departure. We are just waiting for your orders.”

The Spaniards eyes wandered past Lesaro to take a look at his eager working men, stowing away the last provisions and supplies for their next hunt. There were many people walking around and enjoying the - unfortunately cloudy - day on the harbour, but his men clearly stood out with their elegant uniforms, so he recognized them immediately. It filled him with pride to be responsible for the country´s safety by getting rid of these pirates. 

“Aye, let´s set the sails. Lesaro, please tell my men that I will be coming shortly. I just have one last thing to take care of.” 

“Si, Capitan!” And with that Lesaro turned and headed back to their ship. He was an exceptionally loyal -yet a little clingy- lieutenant. Still Salazar appreciated him very much. 

One last time he then lowered his gaze to look at his daughter and gently caressed her soft cheeks, before going back to the carriage he had come here with and giving his daughter to her nursemaid. As he gave her the child – a woman who reminded the Captain a lot of Mary – it felt like leaving a part of him behind. But he couldn´t risk the girl to be placed in danger, the sea was just way too unsafe for her. Yet.  
So the only choice he had was to let her nanny rear his beloved Alicia, while he would purge the seas and erase all dangers that were up to mischief there. Only the best one of course.

Eventually he headed for the Mary and his men, ready to set the sails. The people at the harbour waved them goodbye, but the Spaniard didn´t pay attention to any of them. He only had eyes for his treasure, he had to leave behind with a heavy heart. He watched Alicia´s nursemaid get on the carriage with his child in her arms. However, no one would ever know how badly the Captain was hurting. He was amazing at hiding his feelings. 

After this short farewell he turned his back on the mainland. Everything he had eyes for now was his mission and that was to erase the scum of the seas from history. 

Pirates.  
***


	2. Bird in a Cage

Many years passed and Alicia grew up a young woman. Her father still guarded her like gold, constantly asked her private questions about her life, who she met in her spare time after courses, if she´d already finished her homework, her friends and the list goes on. He also had high expectations on her formal education and manners. Every Sunday Alicia – forced by Armando - had to visit etiquette courses and learn several hours a day. Armando Salazar had already planned to send his daughter to an elite boarding school or let her read medicine.  
However, at the age of 17 one couldn´t care less about all this existential stuff. But the more Alicia struggled against her father´s demands, the more distant their relationship became. Lucky for her, she was at least able to argue him out of paying her piano lessons. 

Life with a rich and strict father might have had many down sides, but not all hope for peace in their life together was lost. Sometimes, in Armando´s little free time he had, he took his daughter on a ride with his ship, to enjoy some alone time with his family (not to hunt pirates of course, as this is the secret of his job he tried to hide from Alicia), far away from everyone else. These were the times the Spanish girl really loved.

The smooth waves, the seemingly endless horizon in front of them and the songs of the seagulls…for a few moments Alicia could forget all the troubles on the mainland she had with her father. Even though they were alone on the Mary they didn´t talk much about each other´s concerns – either one too scared to start another fight.  
Unfortunately, though, these short trips became less and less frequent as Armando Salazar soon started to spend more time on the high seas to end the pirate plague. Alicia never knew of her father´s doings and he never talked about it with her, so she shrugged it off as simple business. Even if it broke his heart to not being able to talk about his real mission, he had to keep this information from reaching her ears, so he even told his own men to not lose a single word about it in front of his daughter. He was too scared to lose her with this cruel truth. 

***

On an ordinary Sunday afternoon Alicia stood in front of a huge, pompous mirror, regarding her own reflection in it. She wore her beloved wild mane neatly braided and a spiff, fawn knee-length dress with a cute little bowknot on her neckline for the etiquette course she had to visit today. Her shoes were shiny and black with lace-decorated socks reaching to her ankles.  
Behind her, Alicia saw her father approaching. Pride sparkled in his eyes as he saw his daughter dressed in her finest garment for today´s courses. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You truly look marvellous, querido.”

Alicia forced a smile to not make her father suspicious and make him sic her butler Carlos on her to supervise her. The only reason he sometimes did this was to make sure that the girl didn´t do any mischief instead of managing her duties (which in fact she often did).

She met Armando´s gaze in the mirror. It was really rare for them to be that close in harmony. Normally their relationship was beyond frigid due to their different views on life and dozens of conflicts between them were caused by Alicia´s rebellion against her father´s expectations. Very often after they´ve had another fight, the young Spaniard took to her heels for a few days. She wouldn´t tell anyone where she´d go, not even her friends.

“Gracias, padro.”

The captain smiled genuinely. Then, after kissing his daughter gently on her forehead, he sent her off and told her to be back home punctually. Alicia was surprised that Carlos didn´t have to come along with her this time. 

He even called her querido…his darling, his treasure. He hasn´t had done that for a long time.

His words echoed in her head as Alicia went downstairs to the foyer of their mansion. It slightly warmed her heart to think about what he´d said, but it wasn´t enough reason for her to stop her rebellion against Armando´s rules.  
Before she left the building through the massive entrance door, she stopped and looked around to check if somebody was watching her. 

The coast was clear.

***

Now she had to hurry. She had arranged to meet her friends at 3 P.M. at the church tower and already was almost ten minutes late. Of course she did all of this covered by her etiquette course she originally had to attend, but here she is, breaking the rules once more.

“That´s out of place for a modern lady” her father would probably say. But what would he say if he knew that his daughter secretly met her friends instead of following her duties? Grounding would be the least…in case he wouldn´t even lock her in her room and chain her.

Panting, Alicia hurried down the cobbled street while the heels of her shoes clattered loudly with every step. When eventually she ran past her etiquette school, she was glad no one recognized her from there. She turned left to another street where she came upon the huge, round village square where a fountain with angels filled the air with soothing sounds of water in the middle of it. It was a sunny and enjoyably warm day in Cádiz but still very few people could be seen outside.  
Alicia passed the fountain ahead to another, more narrow alley leading to the church. There were wild flowers growing in the meadows and several trees on each side of the path. Even the birds could be heard embracing spring. 

The short pathway eventually ended in a pretty big spacious part of the city with lots of houses and buildings, very commonly used as a market place on Fridays, but due to the absence of the sellers a man with a violin grabbed the chance to earn some extra money by playing some music. Many people were attracted by his melodies and their beauty made them donate a little money, throwing some coins into the hat besides his case. Alicia also gave the man some and he thanked her kindly. 

At the further end of the place she already spotted her friends waiting for her. 

“Alicia, at last, where have you been?!”, a boy, Alejo, asked impatiently as the girl approached. He had brown ruffled hair (it was their natural state and he didn´t even try to tame them) with one longer strand worn as a braid. The inspiration for his hairstyle was Captain Jack Sparrow, whom he admired very much. His eyes were green and he had come to Cádiz from Madrid a few years ago.

Marisa, a girl with irish roots and shoulder-length red hair, darted a questioning glance at Alicia.  
Leia also didn´t seem all too happy with her friend´s delay. Leia was the youngest of their group at the age of roughly 14, she had long, curly, blond hair and her cheeks were always red, no matter what.

Alicia, however, merely panted and laughed while catching her breath from running.  
“You can call yourselves lucky that my father didn´t send my butler to supervise me, or else you would have waited until the end of time and I wouldn´t have come.”

No one responded to that argument. 

“So…”, Marisa began, “now that we´re complete I think we should go to our quarter, don´t you think?” She wore a baby blue dress perfectly matching her innocent personality and red hair.  
The friend´s “secret quarter” actually was atop of the church´s bell tower, where they had a fantastic view over the city and no one would find them up there. Ever Sunday when they met, they waited for the worship service to be over and then they would sneak inside when people started to leave the building. The wooden door at the altar then led them to the bells, where usually no one of the holy spirited people was. 

Alicia sat on one window´s ledge with one leg left dangling edgewise, while Alejo leaned against the wall next to her. Leia and Marisa sat on the floor opposite to Alicia and eagerly discussed about topics she didn´t really care to listen to. All she heard was about boys, their new dress and how their wedding day should once be. Soon, however, the chatter stopped and their giggles became awkward as they sensed that something seemed off with Alicia. She hadn´t said a single word since they got up here. Something must have bothered her.

“So umm…Alicia are you okay? You haven´t talked to us ever since we´re here, is something wrong?”, Leia carefully asked.

“I-I know your father…I mean, we all know how strict he is, so is it because of him? How do you feel about all this?”, she continued after she received no answer.

How did she feel about this?

Then the thought crossed her mind, that Armando has probably caught wind of her absence from her lessons already. Either someone was sent to relay the message or her father had investigated himself. Bad.

She felt bad. She suffered under his stern hand and discipline, wherefore she had so little freedom she wished she had. So much time was wasted to fit into society´s standards in Alicia´s view, learn things humankind created and of course her etiquette courses every Sunday. Alicia hated everyone at this school, especially her teacher Señora Fernanda. She was an elderly woman who would always wear her glasses on the tip of her nose and be very quick to criticize Alicia, as she always kept an eye especially on her. Unfortunately she was also the one who would often inform her father about her absences. 

Very often she was also guided by her butler Carlos, be it to her lessons or a simple walk. It was rare for her to be not kept an eye on. Her friends, on the other hand, did not have these sorrows, they could do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. They could enjoy their free time after school just the way they wanted, while Alicia was often busy studying (and oh her father checked on her in her room every now and then so she could not cheat).

Her eyes started to become watery and her vision blurred as the tears came.  
This couldn´t go on like this forever.

“Alicia?”

Alicia watched the birds in the sky and admired how they could fly so free. Sometimes she wished she was one of them.  
“You know…sometimes, if I see the birds in the air, I wish nothing more than to be like them. To simply spread my wings and fly and sing along with them.”, the girl stated. 

Her friends understood, but none of them said a word. 

Then she lowered her gaze to watch the people down by the village square, who have gathered around the musician. His happy tunes still reached her ears from the distance as she saw the people clap and dance. They all seemed so happy with their lives, yet they didn´t know how simple and compelled they all were. They all lived according to rules and norms created by humankind itself and were considered to be worthwhile. Following your own sexuality for example, loving men instead of women or vice versa would earn you disgusted looks and even the gallows these days. If you looked different than everyone else, be it because of the clothes you wore or simply the way you appeared, people would stop, stare and talk. Appreciation was only distributed with checklists.

Alicia would never understand how people could be so simple and intolerant of others, especially those who didn´t “fit in”. She herself always admired these people, as her friends could also be described as “different”, because some of them weren´t even born in Spain or looked different than the average person here (if you take a look at Marisa for example with her pale skin and red hair). And if someone even knew that Alicia kissed her once, even if it was just for showing her how much she loved Marisa as a friend, some people would freak out about this. Pretty sure they would.

Slowly, however, Alicia´s head began to spin, she felt cramped, not just inside her head, but also in this world she lived in. She needed a little distance in her perspective and she thought the harbour would be the perfect place to find this. 

So she decided the harbour would become her next place to go. So she swung herself from the ledge, her head facing the floor and her gaze empty to find the sea and her sight again.  
“Hey, what are you up to? You won´t just abandon us here, will you?”, Alejo reproached.

“I´m heading for the harbour. You can come with me if you want.” Alicia offered, unimpressed by his words, her head halfway turned to her friend while she hurried off. She could sense that her friends seemed to worry about her, but at the moment she just wanted to be left alone and was relieved as she found out no one had followed her.  
Marisa first wanted to come with Alicia, but Leia was quick to stop her. Even if it wasn´t easy for her to let her go without knowing what troubled her, she simply did.

“I think it´s best if we leave her alone for a while.”

***

Casually and lost in thoughts Alicia strolled around the Puerto de Cádiz until she reached the pier. She walked upon it until she arrived at the foremost end of the wooden path, watched the waves crash against the piers and listened to the sea gulls, while enjoying the light breeze. Her friends must be pretty worried about her, she thought, they knew Alicia as an outgoing girl with a spirited personality. But as bubbly as she seemed, there were many secrets hidden underneath that surface, not even her friends knew about. And as unpredictable as she was, no one could tell what she´d do next in any situation, proven by the surprise in her friend´s faces as she suddenly ran off to the harbour without any forewarning.  
However, as Alicia came here, lost in her own world as she was, she didn´t notice a certain ship and didn´t notice a certain crew…

„Perdone, señorita?“ a voice suddenly adressed her from behind.

With a mixture of shock and surprise she turned around to face the stranger. The person was a man with an eyepatch and strands of his hair neatly curled on each side of his face standing in front of her and watching her insecurely. 

“Who are you?” Alicia asked, not quite knowing how to react.

“Oh, Alicia it really is you! How nice to meet my capitan´s daughter!” the man genuinely smiled. “My name is Lesaro, mi amore, I´m the lieutenant of the Silent Mary, your father´s ship.”  
The girl swallowed. How could the lieutenant of Armando´s crew know her?

“I-I am very pleased to meet you as well, señor.” Alicia stammered, trying her hardest not to look suspicious to him – you never knew. 

“Your father often talks about you when we´re on high sea, he seems to be really proud of you. He always carries a picture of you with him when he´s not home and he would show it to the men closest to him and tell us what a lucky man he is with a daughter like you by his side.” Lesaro seemed to be moved by his words.  
Alicia unwittingly tried to take a few steps back, but failed as the railing stopped her. So Armando Salazar was so proud of his daughter, that he told his own men about how wonderful she was, while she kept betraying his trust. 

Unfortunately, the lieutenant must have noticed her startled expression and eventually asked the question Alicia had not wanted to be asked. 

“Alicia, is something troubling you?” but as he received no answer, he kept on asking.  
“Shall I guide you back home? Maybe a fine cup of tea will cheer you up again, the crew and me we´re – “

“No, no, no, anything but that!” she suddenly cut him off a little harsher than intended and waved her hands protectively in front of her. Then there was silence.

But Alicia couldn´t withstand the pressure any longer and started crying. The load she carried on her shoulders finally broke her – the high expectations of her father and now the guilt feelings towards him. Lesaro carefully laid an arm around her to soothe her. 

“Alicia…please talk to me. Is there some way I can help you?”

Part of her refused to talk about it, too scared to make things worse, but on the other hand it would kill her if she carried her worries around with her forever. Why she didn´t talk with her friends? She didn´t know herself, maybe because they couldn´t be too helpful as they would never know how she felt. After the first tears were stifled she began to tell what troubled her without interruption.

“I was supposed to attend my weekly etiquette courses today, but I cut it and went to visit my friends instead. I barely ever see them so I have to use these opportunities to spend some time with my friends. I didn´t go to this school because I hate it so much, I hate everyone at it. I just cannot comprehend why I have to do all this while every other girl my age can live a normal life and do whatever they please. And now that you told me my father was so proud of me I feel even worse, because I betrayed him. My friends also probably worry about me already because I ran off to go here, because I wanted to be alone.”

Lesaro showed compassion for the girl and understood how she felt.

“Listen well, niña, I´m the lieutenant of your father´s ship and I´m the man who´s closest to him. I will talk to him in private and describe your suffering. And now come, mi amore, I will bring you home, then go to your room and read or draw something, do anything that keeps the bad thoughts away. Tomorrow morning we will leave the mainland and until then everything will be okay, si?”

The man was surprised at what the captain´s daughter just told him. He´d never expected her to be that rebellious and unhappy with her life. Remembering his own childhood, of which he´d spent most of his years in poverty and child labour to help his parents, he would´ve done anything to live a little wealthier. But it seemed as if not everything was as golden as it appeared.  
Alicia wiped the tears from her face and felt relief filling her body like medicine despite the load she still carried. However, she was quite happy to have met the lieutenant of the Silent Mary and with him someone she could talk about her worries even if she´d just met him.

Lesaro seemed to be a good man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Alicia...she´s a little weird, I know, but let´s let her be her free spirited self. 
> 
> Let´s see what will happen next! ~


	3. Gone for Good

Carlos entered the generously sized dining room filled with complete silence. Only the subdued voices of people and carriages clattering on the bumpy road could be heard from the street. A long, big table in the room was finely laid with several spoons, forks, knives and glasses with a low candelabrum decorated in the middle of it, making it all look very luxurious. A chandelier with dozens of candles hung from the ceiling and portraits were all over the walls. A fire crackled softly in the chimney, warming the room, but it couldn´t do anything against the coldness coming from the two people sitting in it. 

Armando and his daughter Alicia, for dinner now dressed in a floor length dark red dress, sat on each side of the table waiting for dinner to be served by their butler in complete silence. The girl watched the silver plate covered by a bell in anticipation, as a hand covered in a white glove placed it before her. Today´s menu was roast venison. Alicia shuddered. She couldn´t bear the thought of eating meat anymore ever since she watched a farmer slaughter several piglets with an axe. Until this day she still remembered the animal´s loud squeals.  
Her father seemed to have noticed his daughter´s dismay, because he eyed her with a silent yet sharp gaze. 

“Alicia, please…”

She looked at her father, then back at her plate and the smell of the cooked meat reached her nose. Holding her breath was useless, so she at least tried to eat some of the vegetables. Actually she didn´t like deer that much, but she still didn´t have the heart to eat an animal that was killed just to feast on it. Carefully Alicia took the outer fork, as is right and proper, though she wasn´t even sure if it was the one she should have taken in the first place. Oh and she was well aware of Armando silently watching her, but he didn´t comment on what she did. It would have been quite the embarrassment if he had said anything.

She didn´t want to make him angry, especially because she didn´t even know if he already knew of her runaway act. He would be mad….really mad. Not to mention disappointed. Alicia was scared of her father´s judgement. Now even the taste of the carrots on her tongue became bitter and poor, even though their cook was an extremely talented one. 

In further silence the both of them finished their meal and the girl almost thought herself safe, but unfortunately her luck seemed to have run out. Armando neatly folded his napkin and placed it on the plate before him. For a few seconds he remained in this position with his gaze lowered. Alicia knew exactly that he was thinking about something. She already felt the cold sweat on her skin.

“There´s something I have to talk about with you, señorita.”

Alicia swallowed. Her whole body convulsed in expectation of the worst. Then Armando Salazar looked right in his daughter´s eyes. He was visibly distressed. Then he continued.

“It has been brought to my attention, that you have not fulfilled your duties again, Alicia. What was the reason for your absence this time?”

“I…um fell on my way to school and-“

“Alicia!”, her father thundered and then there was silence again for a moment, filling the air with already crepitating tension. The girl´s heart beat fearfully.  
“Stop lying to me…I already know the truth. I just wanted to test you and see if you would have told me as well.”

A name immediately entered her mind: Lesaro. He said he wanted to talk with Armando. It must have been him who told her father everything.  
Alicia just sat there in her chair, letting the other´s anger endure without defending herself.

“Alicia, I am incredibly disappointed in you. I thought I could have faith in you, my own daughter, but instead she fools me when I merely wanted to make her a moderno dama.”

Armando rose from his chair, approaching the girl, while she turned her head in shame. 

“In this world there are rules you have to follow, whether you want it or not. You´re my daughter, Alicia, and even you have to obey.”

“Do you really think I´ll live my life according to you?” she hissed under her breath. Slowly she turned her head to face her father and looked him straight in the eye. 

Her words cut him like a knife right through his heart. He had always wanted the very best only for his beloved daughter, his one and only, and exactly for that she seemed to detest him. It had always been one of his greatest fears to lose Alicia at some point in his life. First his wife was taken from him so many years ago and his daughter would be the next person leaving him. 

„¡Pórtate bien! A young lady like you should know how to behave in today´s society. As my daughter you represent me in public and I want you to act accordingly, ¿entendiste?“  
He sounded hurt and angry. Yet Alicia didn´t give in.

“Never will I align myself with this hypocritical society you want me to live in. Everyone acts like they´re your friend and the next day they´re your enemy, everything only revolves around everyone´s own wealth and image and I do not want to be part of such a shallow way of living!”

Then a sharp, burning pain shot through Alicia´s cheek. Her head was turned to one side again and her hair now hung wildly in her face. She felt hot blood throbbing in her head, but Alicia first had to assimilate what just happened, before she could even realize it. 

Slowly turning her head again to face her father, Armando continued the fight. Did he just really cuff her?

“I demand you to immediately go to your room and think about what you just delivered. I am truly disappointed in you, Alicia.”

She heard his footsteps diverge from her. Then the young girl finally dared to look up again, shaking with fear. Her father now stood in front of one of the wide windows, his hands crossed behind his back, watching the happenings on the streets. 

For a moment Alicia still sat in her chair, cowering, rubbing her cheek and feeling a touch of sadness overwhelming her. She saw her father standing there, so full of pride and dignity, as if he had never done what he just did. She couldn´t believe it herself. 

„¡Te odio!“, the girl hissed between fury and tears.

Then she carefully rose from her chair as silently as she could and ran out of the dining room, while teardrops ran down her face and left their traces on the carpet floor. Alicia slammed the door shut behind her with all her might and the loud sound even caused Armando to wince.

Ashamed, Armando Salazar´s eyes continued to watch the people on the street. People dressed in black dresses especially caught his attention in this uncomfortable moment. He watched them with the knowledge pressing on his shoulders that he just cuffed his own daughter. 

***

Crying, Alicia lay in her bed, face buried in the snowy white silken fabric with her hands clenched to fists.

It couldn´t go on like this any longer. The more she seemed to struggle against her father, the worse things became. On the other hand, what good would it do to her, if she satisfied Armando´s wishes while she could not bear living a life in this society? She felt caught in her own world, though she wasn´t sure whether she could even call it her own. Unfortunately, she was unlucky enough to be able to think outside the box about his world and humanity and almost no one understood her. Many would mistake her for mad or only her age accordingly rebellious, but there was so much more behind that. 

She didn´t like the world she lived in and thus she tried to create her own one, in which she could shape her future just as she imagined. Alicia would never want to live like any other human being on this planet. Grow up, marry, become parents, grow old and die. That was not her view, her purpose in this existence. Much rather she wanted to explore, experience and extend her knowledge about the world and its secrets. 

The Spanish girl rolled on to her back and stared at the ceiling. Her eyes were already read and swollen and her head hurt from the stress.

Then she sat up on the edge of her bed and eventually stood up, heading for a large desk in front of wide, curved windows leading to a balcony from her room. Alicia sat down. The Spanish sun already gleamed in a fiery shade of red, illuminating the girl´s room. Yet she inflamed two candles for better light and took a feather from its penholder, dipped it in ink and ripped out a page of one of her school books with lots of free space. So she began to draw. 

Line after line she carved into the paper until the picture she wanted to visualize became more visible with every drop of ink. Alicia took a moment to regard her drawing and added some more details to it until she was satisfied with the result. 

It was a beautiful illustration of a ship sailing towards the horizon. 

As eventually the last candle burnt down, she became aware of how long she must have sat here, working on her own little piece of art. Maybe she should try and win her bread by drawing and selling her drawings as an artist?

Suddenly there was a knock on her door. Startled and panicking, Alicia tried to hide her picture as fast as possible. She didn´t want anyone to see it, especially not if it was drawn on a page from her math book. So she simply shoved the drawing inside it and quickly shut it again, then she asked her visitor in. 

It was Carlos. And he merely wanted to enquire about the lady´s wellbeing. Alicia affirmed that she was fine.

The moment the man left her alone again, she pulled the paper out of the book again and looked at it. It was all rumpled and a little blurred now. How amazing it must be to spend his life at sea. Then an idea crossed her mind. 

Tonight she would run away from home. It didn´t matter where to or for how long. Just any place where no one would find her. She didn´t want to stay in this place anymore and much less with her father. 

Alicia thought of Lesaro and shook her head. 

If it was true what the lieutenant had said, that she would mean the world to Armando, why would he then risk losing her trust by cuffing her?

She thought of her friends next. And hesitated.  
They would all wonder about her disappearance and wouldn´t even know why and where she went. No, she didn´t want that. Ripping another page out of her book, she began writing a farewell letter to Marisa, Alejo and Leia. It was not a long one, yet it included everything they needed to know. 

After she had finished her writings, she grabbed her small leather bag and carefully packed the two pages into it. 

This was her final resolution. 

Once and for all Alicia would go on the run.

***

It was a chilly night and there was something strange in the air. It felt weird to the girl running through the streets still dressed in her fine red dress, carrying a small bag and a lantern with her. She didn´t even want to change her clothes in the first place, as her escape was already planned. 

Her first mission was to bring her farewell letter to her friend´s secret hideaway in the church tower. Thank god the church was not locked (for everyone who needed a connection to god it was always opened) and Alicia could sneak in without worrying about getting caught. Finally she placed the paper on the floor where it couldn´t be unseen and left again. They would now know what she was up to. She could trust them.

Then she was sneaking through the streets of Cádiz once again.

Inside her bag she now only carried the drawing of the ship and her only light source, her lantern, guided her through the dark. Still, fear was her constant companion. Whenever she heard a sound she´d stop for a moment and listened, but made sure to move on quickly. She couldn´t afford to stay in one place for too long, even if it was not likely for her father to still be awake at this late hour, yet it was better to play it safe. 

Eventually the girl arrived at the Puerto de Cádiz after having passed through a side street. The soft crashing of the waves faintly displaced the eerie silence of the night and Alicia dared to take a break from her fraught escape and simply listened to the ocean sound. Her pace became slower and a feeling of melancholy filled her as she thought of the good old times with her father sailing the sea. She quickly shook it off.

The girl continued her stroll along the dark, abandoned harbour with her little light and watched the sea waves gently swash against the pier and lithic bank.  
When all of a sudden something caught her attention. 

Almost invisible in the dark, there was a small boat tied to the pier with a rope, floating below along with the water´s rhythm. 

Alicia looked around, making sure no one was watching her, and approached the boat to investigate it. It was indeed small with little to no more space for two or three persons, but it still was pretty tempting. Who could tell where it could bring her to? In any case far enough away from here.

So she stepped on the pier, climbed through the wooden handrail and jumped down into the boat without thinking twice. Shortly after her body collided with it, the boat shook violently in the water, sending a few waves across the surface, but eventually calmed again after Alicia regained her balance and could place her lantern safely on one of the boards. 

Not a single thought of possible consequences came to her mind. She didn´t even really care what would happen if she got caught. No punishment could be worse than continuing to live with her father Armando Salazar, though she was aware of him noticing her absence sooner or later. She knew he´d look for her as she was his daughter after all, but he´d never find out about her roaming the sea with a small boat. At least she hoped so. He´d first check his proximity and while her father was busy doing that, Alicia would be over the hills and far away.  
But before the girl could be off to the sea however, she first had to take care of the rope carelessly loose fixed on a stake. She pulled it onto her boat, the fiber all wet and heavy now as it was dragged through the water, and neatly stowed it beneath the board. A typical habit of her father to settle tasks with care, which she seemed to have inherited. Anyways, maybe the cord could be useful to her, so she decided to take it with her on her journey with no destination. 

Annoyed by the thought of her being similar to her father, whose attitude she hated, she then removed her lantern and sat down on the board. “Never will I be like him…” she thought.  
Alicia grabbed the two paddles that were also stowed in the boat and let them slide into the nightly ocean water. 

She was ready.

To seal the deal on her final decision, Alicia used one of her paddles to shove herself off the pier to win some space and be able to properly row the boat. It was not as easy as it looked to conn a boat, but after a short period of disorientation Alicia had figured out how to use the paddles. 

There she was, putting to sea, all alone and with nothing more than a drawing, a lantern and a boat.

While she rowed her boat, she kept her gaze steady at the distancing Puerto de Cádiz, watching the empty place and looking for people who could have possibly kept an eye on her. Not a soul was to be seen that night.

So she rowed and rowed her small boat across the ocean for what felt like hours until she didn´t even know for how long and where she was right now. The night was pitch black and her lantern has become a mere faint light in the middle of nowhere, shining weakly in the dark like a firefly. It wouldn´t make it longer. 

Not only was the ocean dark and wide, but also freezing cold. Dressed in her thin fabric and several layers of skirt, Alicia was already shivering with cold and tried to keep herself somewhat warm by sculling her boat with all the strength in her arms. 

No matter how fast she thought she got, however, there still was no clue to how far she has already gotten or where she was and Alicia felt fear rising and gaining the upper hand. She cursed her own stupidity for having used a boat to get away while possessing no sailing skills at all. Driven by her fear and her wish to run away from home she didn´t think, no, she really didn´t use her brain this time. She stole this boat without thinking of a compass, let alone bringing a map with her. This was the rashest decision she has ever made in her life and Alicia slowly started to regret what she did.

Yet it was way too late to turn back now. The girl completely lacked any orientation and on top of that she didn´t want to earn another slap in the face by her strict father.  
The situation was hopeless. Alicia found herself caught on a course without a destination and was completely exhausted by now. It must have been pretty late by now and the girl hasn´t slept a wink.

With all the strength left in her body, Alicia hauled the paddles in the boat and stowed them back in it. There was nothing more she could do under such circumstances than to rest, even if it was incredibly cold, but Alicia hoped her lantern would still give off a little heat. Then she sat down in the middle of her tiny ship and laid an arm and her head on top of it on the board she just sat on. The seawater gently rocked it, while she drifted along the ocean and it felt like magic to Alicia.

Like freedom.

It was the first time in her life she felt a feeling like this. If it hadn´t been as scary to be sailing the sea all alone and helpless in the middle of the night, it would have been overwhelming.  
Then, finally, Alicia fell asleep under the stars in a lonely boat with no course and let herself drift to wherever the ocean wanted to bring her.

***

The sun stood high in the sky above the Atlantic Ocean. The sea was calm and a pirate ship sailed across the waves having set a course for the coasts of western Spain. 

Some of the men on the ship were drinking rum together, others were busy cleaning the ship and one man had the task to observe the ocean from the crow´s nest. 

The pirate shielded his eyes from the sun with one hand and narrowed them to a slit, clinging to a rope with the other as something strange caught his attention.  
“Man overboard!” he screamed and used the rope to get down to the deck. He beckoned his mates and pointed a finger to the person in a small boat, looking unconscious. 

“…a girl?”  
“Looks like it.”  
“She looks like she be dead.”  
“I hope she be no witch.”

This sentence made some of the men nod falteringly, while they stared at the boat drifting across the sea.

It didn´t take long for the captain to notice and watch his men´s goings-on from his steering wheel and to unceremoniously join them, wanting to find out what could have possibly aroused his crew´s attention.

“Captain…a girl.” His first mate explained and pointed at a small boat, floating lonely on the water with a young girl on it.

“What shall we do, Captain?”

The man took a brief moment to think and didn´t hesitate any longer with his answer.  
“Get that boat and bring the kid on board…”

He turned around and darted one last look at his crew before he went.

“…savvy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone interested: Cádiz is a real Spanish city. I looked it up before I started writing, because I wanted the story to be a little more authentic and on the map you can even find the church I mentioned in the last chapter. The etiquette school, however, was just invented by me for this story by the way.
> 
> Aaaaalso, I pretty much like how this story has developed so far and I guess everyone of you knows, who adopted Alicia at the end of this chapter ;)  
> I even already have an idea for the end of this fanfiction...but before that, let´s just stay loyal to the storyline, aye?


End file.
